The operators of Genie, an app for performing financial transactions in Sri Lanka, recently partnered with the state-owned Bank of Ceylon (BOC) to allow the 14 million customers of BOC to upload funds to Genie, which can “securely hold credit and debit cards, current and savings accounts and eZ Cash accounts to promote seamless payment experiences.” Genie and the mobile wallet eZ Cash are
Category: South Asia, East Asia and Pacific
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “2020 Annual Impact Investor Survey,” by Dean Hand et al, published by the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN)
The 10th edition of this survey includes responses from 294 impact investors, those that seek to “generate positive, measurable social and environmental impact alongside a financial return.” From the data the authors have collected, they reach the following conclusions:
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Symbiotics Raises $7.8m for Pan Asia Bank of Sri Lanka in Sale of “Green Bonds” to Investors Including SEB
Symbiotics, a Switzerland-based manager of international investments in small business, recently issued a four-year loan of LKR 1.42 billion (USD 7.75 million) to Sri Lanka’s Pan Asia Banking Corporation for on-lending to projects with reduced effects on the environment in sectors such as energy and agriculture. Symbiotics raised the money through an issue of “green” bonds. Of the bond buyers,
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Good Return, UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) to Support Women’s SMEs in Cambodia, Fiji, Nepal, Samoa with Credit Guarantees, Technical Assistance
Good Return, the Australia-based affiliate of the US-based NGO World Education, recently partnered with the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) to support women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through a credit guarantee scheme in Cambodia, Fiji, Nepal and Samoa. Under the program, “International impact investors will be providing the funds to be guaranteed to partner financial institutions” in
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Microfinance Network Gojo Takes $14m Equity Stake in Satya Microcapital of India
Japanese microfinance holding firm Gojo and Company recently increased its minority equity holding in New Delhi-based Satya Microcapital with a share purchase in the amount of INR 1.05 billion (USD 13.9 million). Satya plans to use the capital to expand its work with migrant laborers and other poor people to create and preserve jobs, especially to counteract the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Satya CEO Vivek Tiwari said, “the capital infusion will
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: US Development Finance Corporation (DFC) Approves $1b for Health, Food Security, Financial Services, Small Business
The government-backed US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) recently approved the disbursal of a total of USD 1 billion to 12 projects in emerging markets in Africa, Latin America and the Indo-Pacific region that seek to strengthen health systems; food security; employment opportunities; technology; education; and access to financial services for underserved groups such as women and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Sixty percent of the funding is
MICROFINANCE PAPER WRAP-UP: “Impact of COVID-19 to MFIs in Indonesia: A Rapid Assessment,” published by Rise Research and Training
The authors of this paper conducted a “rapid assessment” of microfinance institutions (MFIs) that operate in ten provinces of Indonesia to: (1) identify key challenges that MFIs face due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and (2) define support mechanisms to sustain their business operations. The data is based on a survey of
SPECIAL REPORT: COVID-19 Edition of Financial Inclusion Compass Survey Launches – Looking at Challenges and Priorities of a Sector Under Threat – An Invitation to Participate
From 
the European Microfinance Platform (e-MFP): e-MFP has launched the third e-MFP survey of financial inclusion trends, but as a special edition focused solely on the challenges and priorities facing the sector as a result of the COVID-19 public health and economic crisis. Several months into this global crisis, with its critical threat to vulnerable populations, financial inclusion providers and the entire ecosystem that supports them, the scale of the challenges ahead is becoming increasingly clear, and stakeholders can think not just about the immediate effects, but their priorities in the medium term as the sector recovers from this and puts in place measures to
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: 26 Inclusive Finance Players Pledge to Support Microfinance Institutions (MFIs), Clients Throughout Pandemic
At the initiative of the Luxembourg-based Grameen Crédit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, microfinance lenders and other operators in the inclusive finance sector have agreed to a set of “Key Principles to Protect Microfinance Institutions and Their Clients in the COVID-19 Crisis.” The commitment involves measures including: operating in a customer-centric manner, protecting staff members, sharing
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Cybercrime Up During Pandemic As FSP Clients, Staff Increase Usage of Digital Payments, Remote Technologies
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of digital payment services has risen, leading to an increase in fraud and thus a renewed urgency to educate and otherwise protect consumers of these services. Financial services providers also are boosting their vigilance in
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Jazzcash, Mastercard Partner to Expand Card-based, Digital Payments in Pakistan
Jazzcash, a unit of Netherlands-based Veon, recently partnered with Mastercard, a US-based payments company, to broaden the offerings of the mobile wallet service it operates in Pakistan. Jazzcash, which was founded in 2012, enables its users to send and receive money via mobile phones. Under the new partnership, Jazzcash customers will be able to use
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Conflicting Telecom Regulations, Cumbersome Utility Account Processes Limit Impact of Credit Bureau Act on Financial Inclusion in Pakistan
Mumtaz Hussain Syed, the CEO of Pakistan-based technology consultancy Aequitas Information Services, reportedly has argued that at least two factors have reduced the effectiveness of his country’s Credit Information Bureau Act of 2015. The law requires “financial and credit institutions to…share data with
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Wave Money – Joint Venture of Telenor, Yoma – Raises $74m in Equity from Ant Financial for Mobile Money in Myanmar
Ant Financial Services Group, a member of the China-based Alibaba Group that operates the online payment service Alipay, recently agreed to invest USD 73.5 million in Wave Money, a joint venture of the Telenor Group and the Yoma Group that provides digital financial services in Myanmar. Ant Financial will take a “substantial minority stake” in Wave Money, which seeks
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Government of Bangladesh Providing Cash Pandemic Assistance to 5m Families, Including $24m via SureCash Mobile Money to Customers of Rupali Bank
Timed to coincide with the Muslim holiday Eid al-Fitr, the Bangladeshi government has announced that it will provide cash assistance of BDT 2,500 (USD 29) to each of 5 million Bangladeshi families that have been affected by COVID-19. As part of this program, the government-controlled Rupali Bank is disbursing BDT 2 billion (USD 23.6 million) to 800,000 of its customers. It is doing this via
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company Invests $19m in Microfinance for Women via Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation
The Japan-based Dai-ichi Life Insurance Company recently invested JPY 2 billion (USD 18.6 million) in a “Microfinance and Gender Loan” scheme, which was arranged by Crédit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank (CIB), a member of the France-based Crédit Agricole Group. The funding will allow the Grameen Crédit Agricole (GCA) Foundation, whose head office is in Luxembourg, “to support microfinance institutions focusing [on]
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Accion Venture Lab Takes Equity Stake in Pintek of Indonesia, Provider of Online Loans to Students, Schools
Accion Venture Lab, a unit of US-based NGO Accion, recently placed an equity investment in Indonesian financial technology (fintech) firm Pintek. While the size and price of the stake remain confidential, the typical size of an investment by Accion Venture Lab is USD 300,000 to USD 500,000. Pintek lends to private universities, secondary schools and
MICROFINANCE EVENT: 3rd Annual Asia-Pacific (APAC) Microfinance Forum; October 26-27, 2021; NOW VIRTUAL
(This event was postponed from October 2020 and has been converted to an online format.) The first day of this event will focus on topics including the impact of COVID-19, overindebtedness, gender disparities in financing, providing services via tablets and mobile phones, and competing with digital lenders. The second day will consist of presentations and panel discussions on topics such as:
MICROCAPITAL BRIEF: Sindhuja Microcredit of India Raises $8.7m in Equity Sale to Carpediem Capital, Nordic Microfinance Initiative
The majority owners of Sindhuja Microcredit, a lender to women in India, recently sold minority shareholdings to Carpediem Capital, an India-based private equity fund manager, and the Nordic Microfinance Initiative (NMI), a public-private partnership based in Norway, for a total of USD 8.7 million. The sizes of the stakes have not been released. Carpediem also invested USD 4 million in Sindhuja in 2019. India’s Vidura Capital served as advisor on the transaction.
The promoters of Sindhuja, Abhisheka Kumar and Malkit Didyala, issued a statement that, “Our customers, self-employed rural women, are the most vulnerable in the COVID–19 world… with their livelihoods under direct threat, this funding will be used to